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Pinch of Navarro's bat the perfect recipe for Cubs

5/1/13: Dioner Navarro plates a pair of runs with a double to center field to put the Cubs up, 4-0, in the bottom of the third

By Carrie Muskat
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MLB.com |

CHICAGO -- Dioner Navarro seems to have perfected hitting off the bench.

The Cubs backup catcher is 5-for-9 (.556) as a pinch-hitter but 2-for-26 (.077) as a starter.

"I think his personality has a lot to do with that," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said Saturday. "He's not a guy who's up there thinking a lot. He's also a guy who can make adjustments and he can hit a fastball. [On Friday], you could tell he was making adjustments to get on top of the fastball and not just swinging the bat."

Navarro came off the bench in the ninth against the Reds' Aroldis Chapman and hit a leadoff single. Sveum is aware of the discrepancy in Navarro's stats.

"I know, it's kind of weird," Sveum said. "I had a year like that -- it might have been my last year. I started once in a while, and I stunk, but every time I got up, I'd get a pinch-hit. It was kind of weird that way."

Maybe he didn't think too much when he pinch-hit?

"That's what it comes down to sometimes," Sveum said. "Starters, since they have four pitches, you might sometimes get caught [thinking], 'Well, he might throw this one, he might throw that one.' Off the bench, you're geared up for the fastball and what happens, happens."